'Foxfire, Foxfire' by Yoon Ha Lee - originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

“Baekdo,” she had said when I was young, “why can’t you be satisfied with chickens and mice? You think you’ll be able to stop with sweet bean cakes, but the next thing you know, it will be shrimp crackers and chocolate-dipped biscuits, and after that you’ll take ( Read more... )

'Old Domes' by JY Yang - originally published in Clarkesworld.

Her name is Jing-Li, and she is a cullmaster of buildings. Of embodiments of brick and stone, locations expressed in forms that humans can deal with, difficult to perceive and even worse to understand. But she does not need understanding to do her job.

'The Unknown God' by Ann Leckie - set in the same universe as her short story, The Nalendar, which I've also recced here, all set in a universe practically riddled with gods, large and small. Originally published by Uncanny Magazine.

'The Mourning Hour' by Anya Ow - Kiat is desperate, the phone he needs repairing is the last thing connecting him to his daughter. Originally published in Giganotosaurus.

'La Chanson des Vieux Amants' by language_escapes - deviates from the show canon but full of lots of lovely character moments and also a nice snapshot of the relationship between Sherlock and Joan. Gen.

'Sea of Dreams' by Alter S. Reiss, published on Beneath Ceaseless SkiesIerois has been a prisoner, left on an island with only occasional visits from a ship bringing food, since being deposed by his brother. He's learned the hard way that the sea surrounding the island is a source of lies, turning stones into precious gems only for the sailors to ( Read more... )

'Quarter Days' by Iona Sharma, originally published on Giganotosaurus.

Grace and her colleagues deal with magic and an unexpected train crash, in a post-World War 1 setting where law and magic are very closely aligned.

'Wooden Feathers' by Ursula Vernon, originally published in Uncanny Magazine.

Sarah makes a meagre living carving duck decoys which even she admits are not all that good, so why exactly is the old man buying the cheapest she has on sale every week?

'Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters' by N.K. Jemisin, published in Uncanny Magazine. Gen.

In the run-up to Hurricane Katrina, after Tookie has decided to stay put, he has an encounter with 'the nosiest damn lizard' and that's the least of what happens to him.

'We travel without seatbelts on' by victoria_p - instead of joining the FBI, Veronica Mars is recruited by SHIELD and ends up going back to Neptune after the truth is revealed about HYDRA. She's not the only one who ends up there. Gen.